


Hunted

by JackRose



Series: Avalanche: Evolution [3]
Category: X-Men Evolution
Genre: Action, Also there are pancakes, Gen, Plots are afoot, Sabretooth is a Jerk, Setting things up for future stories, Sudden revelation at the end introducing a new villain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-11
Updated: 2016-07-11
Packaged: 2018-07-22 21:41:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7454905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JackRose/pseuds/JackRose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Lance Alvers awakens to find Sabretooth in his room, he'll have to fight with everything he has just to survive the night and protect his team.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hunted

Lance awoke to an enormous pressure on his chest, and hot, rancid breath on his face. “Evening,” growled Sabretooth, his knee on Lance’s sternum, his face inches away from Lance’s. “Try to call out for your friends, try to use your powers, and I’ll snap your neck like a twig and then spend some time gettin’ to know your team.”

Lance fought to draw breath, fought to stay calm.

“Probably lardy first,” Sabretooth continued. “He might take some work. Then the little slimy bastard. Not much of him, don’t figure he’d last long once I got my claws into him. Save blondie for last, take my time with her. ‘Course, it might be I’ll do that anyhow. Might be I already have, and you’re the only one left.”

“Touch them and I’ll kill you,” rasped Lance.

“That’s the spirit.” Sabretooth said, running a claw down Lance’s cheek and then tasting the blood he had drawn. “I’ll be out on that bluff over the river. Come by yourself, and when I’m done with you I just might leave your little friends alone.”

Then he was gone, almost as though he’d never been there, if not for the cut on Lance’s cheek.

Lance stood for a long moment in Toad’s doorway, unwilling to step further in and risk waking the younger mutant, but equally unable to tear himself away until he assured himself that he did indeed hear the soft wheezing of Todd’s breath.

Sabretooth could have killed him, in his sleep or just after he woke up. He certainly hadn’t forborne out of any twinge of conscience- not based on everything Pietro had told him about the feral mutant. If he went to meet Sabretooth in the woods… whatever followed wouldn’t be good, and there was no guarantee that afterwards his team would be safe.

On the other hand, if he didn’t go, or if Sabretooth saw anyone with him there was no doubt in his mind that his team wasn’t. He couldn’t afford to hesitate, and he paused only long enough to leave a note- part explanation, part apology, and part farewell. Then he was on his way. Sabretooth could have killed him while he was sleeping and, if Lance had anything to say about it, before the night was over he would wish he had.

***

Sabretooth was nowhere to be seen when he reached the bluff, and for a moment Lance panicked. What if all the huge mutant had wanted was to get him out of the house to give him free rein with the others?

He forced himself to calm. There was no use second-guessing now- besides, as he had already noted, Sabretooth could have removed him from the equation without ever waking him up if that had been his intention. Doubtless he was here, somewhere, watching and waiting.

He breathed deeply, closing his eyes and centring himself, before reaching out with his power. He had hardly started to extend his senses when he felt Sabretooth’s breath, hot on the back of his neck.

“Almost sorry you came. I was looking forward to playing with your little friends. Suppose you’ll have to do for now.”

Lance planted one foot on the ground, feeling his connection to the earth, and causing it to buck up behind him in hopes of throwing Sabretooth off balance. At the same time he spun around, reaching out for Sabretooth. If he could get his hands on the larger mutant, he’d see how smug he was with a body full of broken bones.

Sabretooth leapt off the bucking ground, and swatted Lance away as though he were a fly. Lance hit the ground, hard, with the wind knocked out of him.

Sabretooth grinned as he stalked towards him. “That’s one,” he said.

***

Fred was in the middle of preparing a midnight snack- if a half dozen eggs and a truly heroic side of bacon could be considered a snack- when he saw Lance’s note. He read it three times. Words hadn’t ever been his friend. Then, when he was sure that he had understood it, he bellowed “PIETRO!”

It was loud enough to shake the house.

***

Lance rolled out of the way as Sabretooth brought a foot down where his ribcage had been a moment ago. “This gets to be too much, you want to end it quick, jus’ say the word,” Sabretooth drawled as Lance scrambled to his feet.

Lance was breathing heavily, every exhalation painful. “You think this is the first time I’ve had someone bigger than me smack me around?” He demanded, clenching a fist. A jagged series of rocks erupted from the ground, but Sabretooth was already disappearing back into the treeline. “This is some third grade shit for me, Meow-Mix!” Lance screamed after him.

He slumped against a boulder, trying to gather his thoughts. He didn’t dare think that he had frightened Sabretooth off. He was just being toyed with. And his bravado aside, he wasn’t sure he’d survive another round if Sabretooth came back.

“So, I can’t stay here,” he muttered to himself. “I bet he’d love me to go after him in the woods. He’s in front of me, the cliff’s behind me…”

It suddenly occurred to him that Sabretooth was in the trees. And to someone with Lance’s powers, trees were really nothing more than lumber in the making. Bracing himself against the boulder, he reached out with his power again. This time he wasn’t trying to aim it except in the broadest sense, nor was he trying to limit it to a small effect. The trees began to teeter and fall, decades old trunks snapping in two, or whole root systems ripping themselves out of the ground.

Lance paused and gasped for breath, feeling like he had been stabbed in the side, but the forest all around him had collapsed, and he couldn’t imagine how Sabretooth could have escaped being buried beneath the lumber.

Then, slowly, creakingly, one of the piles of wood began to shift and Sabretooth lifted a log off him, tossing it towards Lance with a snarl. Lance barely managed to roll behind his boulder before the log smashed against it.

“That’s two,” said Sabretooth. His clothes were torn, a ragged gash on his brow was just knitting itself shut, and he gripped his left arm with his right, grunting as it turned from a twisted mess of bone and meat into something resembling a normal limb again. “Not a bad try, neither. But not good enough.”

He lunged forward, and Lance made the only move he had left, drawing on his powers once again to destabilize the entire bluff, dumping both him and Sabretooth off the side of the cliff in a landslide.

***

“Pietro, slow down,” said Scott. “I can’t understand what you’re saying.”

Pietro glared, but took a deep breath and forced himself to speak at something approximating a normal human speed. “Sabretooth. Cametothehouse. Lancewentafterhim. Saidnottofollow.”

Logan growled, his claws popping. “Where?”

“Thenotesaid. StayawayfromKingman’sbluff. Ican’twaitanymoreyoudon’tknowwhathe’slikeLancecouldbehurtorworsecatchup!” And with that he was gone.

“Cyke, I’m going after them,” Logan said. “Get your visor, then get Storm, Hank, and the main team up and follow. None of the kids- by the sounds of it, Sabretooth’s out for blood tonight.”

***

With his powers, Lance was just about able to keep himself from hitting anything too big on the way down, or vice versa. Still, by the time he hit the riverbank, he felt like he’d… well, like he’d fallen off a cliff after being beaten by a superstrong mutant.

“Gotta say,” Sabretooth said, climbing to his feet and spitting out a tooth, and then forcing a protruding femur back into place until muscle knitted around it to hold it, “I’m impressed. Didn’t figure you had this much fight in you, the way you boys used to let Mystique smack you around.”

Lance dragged himself away from Sabretooth along the riverbank. If he brought down the rest of the cliff, he might be able to bury his assailant, but not without burying himself as well.

“Tell you what,” Sabretooth said, picking up a large, jagged rock. “I’m so impressed, I’m gonna do you a favor and finish this off quick. You don’t even have to ask.”

He raised the rock, only to have it vanish from his hands.

“Getawayfromhim,” said Pietro, interposing himself between Sabretooth and Lance.

“Kid, you ain’t gonna be the first speedster I’ve gutted,” Sabretooth growled. He didn’t bother lunging at Pietro, just stalked towards Lance and forced the silver-haired speedster to come to him. Pietro seemed to be on all sides of him, pummelling Sabretooth with a barrage of super-speed punches from every angle, as Sabretooth ineffectual swatted at him. But given Sabretooth’s endurance healing factor, Pietro wasn’t able to do much more than slowly whittle away at his reserves, and long before he was felled, Sabretooth got lucky once, which was all he needed. He extended his foot at just the right moment, and Pietro fell over it, giving Sabretooth enough time to stomp on his leg.

“Hey,” said Lance, not sure how he had been able to climb back to his feet. “Leave him alone. You wanted me, remember?”

“Sure,” said Sabretooth. “Just going to break his legs real quick. Make sure he’s still here when I get around to his turn.” Then he stopped and cocked his head to the side. “What part of come alone did you have so much trouble with?” he snarled, turning back towards the cliff as the roar of Logan’s motorcycle became audible to Lance.

Logan leapt from the motorcycle as it left the edge of the cliff. Sabretooth had to duck and let the motorcycle pass over his head, and by the time he straightened again, Logan had hit the ground and rolled to his feet, claws extended.

“Let the boys go, Creed,” he growled.

Sabretooth howled and charged at him. There was blood then, by the moonlight.

Lance helped Pietro to his feet. “Took you long enough,” he said.

“Hey!” Protested the speedster. “You said not to follow you.”

“Pietro,” said Lance, watching with approval as Logan slammed Sabretooth’s head into a boulder. “I love you like the brother I never wanted, but come on. Can you think of a better way to make sure you do something than telling you not to? Besides, I didn’t know if Sabretooth was still watching me.”

He winced as Sabretooth pinned Logan’s wrists with one hand drew back the other to rip out his throat. Lance began drawing on his power again, but was forestalled by a crimson blast of kinetic energy, which lifted Sabretooth up and flung him to the riverbank.

The X-Chopper hovered low, kicking up loose dust from the landslide. Cyclops stood in the doorway, hand to his visor as the other X-men exited- Shadowcat phasing out the bottom with Colossus and Rogue, Nightcrawler teleporting out with Beast, and Jean and Storm flying out the far side.

Moments later, there was a screech of breaks as Lance’s jeep skidded to a stop just before the cliff edge. Blob, Toad, and Boom-Boom piled out.

“You got lucky this time,” Sabretooth growled. “Be seeing you around, Alvers.” With that he flung himself backwards, into the swiftly running waters of the river.

“Storm, after him,” instructed Cyclops immediately. “Beast, get Avalance and Quicksilver back to the mansion, and lock it down. Put the New Mutants on the buddy system- I don’t want anyone on their own until we find him. X-men, search pattern theta. You’re in pairs too- no one engages Sabretooth on their own.”

The X-men scattered as Beast gently scooped up Quicksilver and leapt back into the helicopter. 

***

“We didn’t find him,” said Kitty. “Mr. Logan said we probably wouldn’t unless he wanted us to, but I hate to think of him still out there, waiting to find you. Do you have any clue why he was after you?”

Lance shook his head. “Last I knew he was Magneto’s errand boy,” he said. “But I can’t imagine Magneto cares enough to send him after me. Maybe it’s something to do with SHIELD, or Mystique. Maybe he was just bored.” He glanced around the infirmary. “No offense, but I’m kind of getting sick of spending time here.”

“Well, doesn’t it have some perks?” Kitty asked, stretching out on the bed beside him.

“Maybe,” Lance conceded, putting his arms around her. “Of course, Mr. McCoy says that this is probably going to scar,” he touched his finger to the stitches in his cheek. “Will you still love me if I’m not pretty anymore?”

“You’re not that pretty now,” Kitty teased, and then burst into outraged giggles as Lance tickled her ribs. “But always. Always forever.”

“Pardon me while I die of diabetes over here,” Pietro snarked from the next cot.

“Of course we could use some privacy curtains,” Lance grumbled. He sighed. “I thought we could walk away from that life,” he admitted. “All I wanted was to look out for the guys. But it keeps coming back. Kitty, when you go…” he pulled her closer, “Eventually, could you ask Scott to come down? I want to talk with him about something.”

***

The next day, Lance and Pietro, supporting each other with arms around the other’s shoulders, hobbled back into the Brotherhood Boarding House to cheers from Tabby and Fred, and a load of confetti dumped by a Todd clinging to the ceiling.

“Okay, okay,” said Lance, brushing it out of his hair. “Listen guys. We’re not the X-geeks.” This prompted another series of cheers until Lance waved them to silence. “We’re not going to be. We don’t have their weird need to stick our noses into everyone’s business. But the world we live in- even if Sabretooth doesn’t come back, something else will come at us. I want us to be ready for that. Summers and Xavier have agreed to let us use their Danger Room- on our own, and training with them. I’m going to start there tomorrow. You know I can’t make you guys do anything- God knows I’ve tried often enough, but I’d like you to come with me.”

The Brotherhood stared at him. “That’s it,” he said, waving his hands. “That’s the speech.”

“Do you think Summers could give you some tips on inspirational speeches?” Pietro asked.

“Yo, he could probably teach a seminar on it,” said Todd, dropping back to the floor. “With bullet points, and a slide projector.”

“1001 Boy Scout aphorisms,” said Tabby. “Still, I guess we better tag along. Make sure you don’t try to defect again.”

“One time!” Lance groaned. “For like, a week.”

“Besides,” said Fred, setting an enormous stack of pancakes in front of Pietro. “We don’t get to wreck Baldy’s stuff nearly enough anymore. And we can’t even get in trouble for it this way.”

Lance decided to quit while he was ahead, and turned his attention to the pancakes- a wise choice, the way Pietro was going through them.

***

“Nice digs you got here, legs,” Sabretooth commented, glancing about the elegantly appointed apartment.

A tall, blonde woman in a white suit raised an eyebrow at him and Sabretooth scratched at his head. “I don’t much like people walking around in my brain,” he growled.

“And if you had cultivated a more trustworthy reputation, I wouldn’t need to search your mind to confirm your version of events,” the woman told him. “I only asked you to scare young Alvers, not to beat him nearly to death.”

“Trust me, he’s scared,” said Sabretooth. “When you’re ready for him, he’ll fall right into your lap.” He leered at her. “Could almost be jealous of him.”

If the woman felt any distaste at the comment, she hid it skillfully. “Thank you for your services,” she said. “Your payment will be forthcoming through the usual channels. Good day, Mister Creed.”


End file.
